"I don't think it's going to be much of a race," Guy Cecil, the executive director of the national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told me yesterday.

Her Republican challengers have continued to insist Gillibrand is "vulnerable," even in the face of polls like the one released by Quinnipiac yesterday, which showed her with a 60 percent favorability rating, and beating each of the prospective opponents by a nearly 2-to-1 margin.

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"For someone that sort of came in completely unknown and to not only survive, but to thrive under that circumstance, I think it's pretty impressive," Cecil said. "And she's a very hard worker."

Cecil, who worked at the DSCC during Chuck Schumer's successful run in charge and worked on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, pointed to the end of the last session, shortly after Gillibrand trounced an underfunded opponent in her first statewide election, when she helped pass the 9/11 health care bill, and the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell during the lame-duck congressional session.

"I have not seen anybody improve her stock the way she has over the last two years, particularly at the end of the cycle," he said.